


Picking Up The Fallen Standard

by BetaArtemis



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comics Characters Adapted Into MCU, F/M, Gen, Introducing Mace's Family, Other, Other Character's Families, Surprises, Team as Family, Yes There Is A Funeral
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-23 19:51:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10726065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BetaArtemis/pseuds/BetaArtemis
Summary: They escaped the Framework. They defeated AIDA and The Superior. They won.But they still lost...





	1. Daisy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Inspieos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inspieos/gifts), [Skyson](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyson/gifts), [strangerkindofdream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangerkindofdream/gifts), [StudioCapsicum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StudioCapsicum/gifts).



> This story will be written from the POVs of various characters on the team as they deal with the aftermath of escaping the Framework and Mace's death in the real world.
> 
> Let's just say this plot bunny was insistent and wouldn't leave me alone so I had to write it.
> 
> I mean, we gotta all figure out some way to deal with all the tears shed over our favorite Patriot.
> 
> The title of this fic comes from a line from the late Ted Kennedy's speech about "I pick up a fallen standard" like his three brothers before him. It seemed appropriate for this occasion as this is really about the team picking up where Mace left off, continuing his legacy and commitment to protecting innocent lives.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy steps up and takes care of the team.

It's strange for Daisy to think that in this moment, she may be the most well-adjusted of their team since their escape from the Framework. One would think that seeing Ward and Trip, _dear Trip_ , again would rattle her, but she'd been so single-mindedly focused on survival and escape that she hadn't had the time to truly give those emotions much thought. Even now, Daisy was busying herself with the numerous things that had to be taken care of before they could reach the safe house that Talbot had so generously provided for them.

Someone had to step up.

And with the rest of the team seemingly all walking around like ghosts, Daisy knew this was not a time when she could afford to fall apart. They needed her and she can't fall apart like she had done before.

The Framework has been destroyed. So were AIDA and Anton Ivanov. The team was reunited and rescued. They were able to get into contact with Talbot, who had picked up all the surviving agents at the Playground and offered to give them temporary safe haven.

In their line of work, a day like this was a win. Only nobody felt that way, and Daisy couldn't blame them.

This was a hollow win.

It weighed on Daisy - the pain and _the guilt_. Almost like when she had lost Lincoln, only now she was at an emotionally better place to be able to handle it.

Not that it makes it any easier.

Everyone knows what they lost, but no one is talking to each other. No one wants to talk about _it_. They were all walking around on eggshells, almost as if they didn't talk about it then it wouldn't be real.

Daisy briefly wonders if the deafening silence between each member of the team is perhaps even more damaging than the loss itself. After all, despite their reunion, they seem more scattered than ever before.

Fitz had locked himself in a room and they'd heard nothing from him. Daisy had been tempted to break down the doors but knew it wouldn't help.

She caught May staring off into space. Simmons hadn't stopped crying. Mack was eerily silent in a way that frightened her.

And Coulson, he's been standing in the medical area looking down at the sheet-covered body laid on the bed ever since they'd all came aboard. Refusing to move, even budge just a little, and eyes haunted and lost.

A look that Daisy knew all too well.

She finds him still there as she finished her walk around of the Zephyr. But the sight of the body, sheet pulled down to the chest and face revealed, stops her briefly, almost as if giving her a stark reminder of reality, of what they had lost and whom they had failed.

Jeffrey Mace's face is unmoving, ashen, yet peaceful. One might even mistake him for simply sleeping, if one doesn't notice his still chest.

The emotions she had locked down in the hours since their escape comes flooding back upon seeing his face, making her even stagger backwards. Mace didn't deserve this. It shouldn't have happened. The plan had been to bring _everyone_ back home, they weren't going to leave anyone behind. What was the use of Daisy Johnson, inhuman superhero, if she couldn't even save a friend?

Logically, she knew this wasn't her fault. She was caught by AIDA, held captive, and there was no way she could have been there to save Mace. But she couldn't stop blaming herself for being too late, for not getting her power back quick enough. It shouldn't have taken Mace's death to give Daisy back what she lost, to give them all a fighting chance. Mace should have made it back with them. He should be here, _alive_.

Daisy knew their relationship didn't start out great but Mace had been instrumental in bringing her officially back into SHIELD, giving her back her life, and since then, they had shared an understanding over superhero fame that she had with no one else. Mace knew what it was like to pretend, to put on a face, to balance a private life and a public life. He had been an ally to her, always giving her encouragement and backing her up. Yes he made some mistakes, told some lies, and Daisy had been upset at some of those actions, but it had all come from a desire to protect, a desire to do good. 

He was _genuine_ \- his desires earnest and sincere - and that was a rarity in this world, in Daisy's experience.

A part of her wishes they could rebuild AIDA again just so that she could smash the android to pieces over and over again, anything to make the machine understand Daisy's rage. A _good man_ died and he shouldn't have. 

Unable to look at Mace's face any longer without the urge to hit a certain robot or fall apart, Daisy stepped into the room to pull the sheet back over Mace's face before turning to Coulson, "Stop this. Stop beating yourself up over this. _He_ wouldn't want it."

She has to speak up, she has to do something. Mace was always about the team and he wouldn't want his death be the reason this team breaks apart, not like this. 

For his sake, for all of their sake, she will do what he would have wanted - keep this team together.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daisy is holding it together for team, someone has to right?
> 
> Coulson is next!
> 
> Reviews/comments are much appreciated!


	2. Coulson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coulson deals with his guilt.

He's been standing there for a long time.

How long?

Well, he doesn't really care.

He probably should. There's probably millions of things he should do right now. But he doesn't care about a single one of them. He can't find the strength in him to care. Not when his failure is right in front of him.

He'd left Mace behind.

_He'd left him._

He had led the man to his doom and left him behind to die while he, Phil Coulson, ran like a coward.

He should have stayed, he should have died with Mace. No Framework, no altered memories, and no collapsing buildings should have excused him leaving one of his own behind to die. What kind of a man that makes him? What kind of a leader?

He isn't fit to lead SHIELD, how can he be?

For all the times he and Mace have clashed in the last few months, Mace had never left him behind. In fact, the other had consistently done everything possible to watch Coulson's back, to look after the team, to the point of even sacrificing himself so Daisy, Simmons, and Fitz could have a few more precious seconds available to them to make their escape.

Jeffrey Mace deserved a life. He deserved to be rescued, to return to his post, to be a part of this team, to be recognized as a true hero. Not kidnapped, tortured, beaten within an inch of his life, and forced into some digital prison where he couldn't remember his real life, where his own people left him to die.

Where _Coulson_ left him to die.

Reaching out with his hand and pulling the sheet back to reveal Mace's face, Coulson bites back a sob that threatened to escape. Tears already pooled at his eyes.

This shouldn't have happened. He should have never let it happen.

This was his team, they were all his people, and it was his job to take care of them. How could he fail so much?

How could he have traded Mace's - _Jeffrey's_ \- life for codes and data that he _knew_ were not real?

He couldn't even blame the murderous robot for that one. AIDA didn't make him run into that building, not after he knew the truth about the Framework being fake. _He_ had done it himself. He had chosen to do it. He had killed Jeffrey while trying to satisfy his own need for redemption.

His selfishness had killed the Director of SHIELD, a good man.

Coulson was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even register that Daisy had entered the room until she covered Jeffrey's face again and tried to comfort him. 

_"Stop this. Stop beating yourself up over this. He wouldn't want it."_

He could sense the fierce defiance in her even before he sees it in her eyes. His Daisy, always trying to help him, always trying to lessen his pain.

But this wasn't something she could fix, not this time, not when he remembers.

"He would have wanted to _live_." Coulson says softly, using all his might to keep the tears from spilling down his face. "I killed him."

_"You didn't kill him, Coulson! You didn't kill him any more than May or Fitz. AIDA did this. She killed him."_

Coulson knows that's what Daisy believes, but he remembers, he knows. Jeffrey was in that building because of him. 

"He only went in that building because I did. They weren't real. I knew it. And I still let it happen. It was me." His voice started to shake. "He shouldn't have been in there. He should have never been in there. He came after _me_."

Yes their job is dangerous. Life and death situations are occupational hazard, along with injuries, trauma, and self sacrifice. He's lost people before in the line of duty, he's even taken lives before. But this, this isn't like any of those times. He had led a man to his death for nothing. Had run for safety while the man died a horrible death _alone_.

Why should his life matter more than Jeffrey's?

"I shouldn't have left him there. I should have never left him there. Why did I leave him there?" He looks to Daisy, he wonders if she could see the desperation in his eyes, his desperate need for an answer to why. A sob racks his body and he can't hold it back this time. He suddenly finds his legs weak, unable to hold him up any longer as he crumbles to the ground.

He doesn't have the strength to fight it when he feels Daisy's arms encircle him, holding him up as she comforts him with soothing words, _"You didn't leave him. He wanted you to live, he told you to go. You never left him, Coulson, he wanted you to survive, to live. Because that's Mace. He cared about all of us, he cared about our team. He cared about you. So you live, you live for him. That's what he would have wanted."_

Coulson doesn't know if he can believe that, if he can ever believe that.

But for a brief moment, he wanted to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coulson's voice is the easiest to find actually :)
> 
> Now onto May!
> 
> Reviews/comments are always appreciated!


	3. May

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May struggles with reality and the blood on her hands.

There are things that Melinda May should remember, but she doesn't.

There are things that Melinda May would like to forget, but she can't.

It's all jumbled in her head, a convoluted mess that she's not sure she wants to try and unravel because it hurts. It physically hurts.

So she stares at the wall from where she's sitting, hoping that the monotony would quiet her mind.

It doesn't.

There's an image in her head and it won't go away.

_The Patriot, shouldering the beam that holds the building together, gazing at her, as if bequeathing her his duty as a protector of innocents, of his team._

It's her team. She knows that now. It is her duty. But her mind won't let her forget that face, that look in his eyes.

She remembers more of the Patriot than she does of Jeffrey Mace, the man in the real world that was more politician than hero. Then again, was she really in a position to judge given she had become a killer for HYDRA? That she had let herself be used to kill one of her own?

She's confused on many things, but she's not confused on this. 

She killed a SHIELD agent, the Director of SHIELD in fact - his blood would forever be on her hands. Blood she could never wash away.

May wants to mourn, she wants to pay her respects, yet how does she do that when she can't even separate fact from fiction? When she can't even figure out what's real and what's not? There's a Mace that she remembers and a Mace that she should know. Which is real? Are they both real? Does she mourn the loss of both?

She winces as her head hurts again.

They may have all escaped the Framework, but the clash between that world and reality continues on in her head.

It frustrates her, it makes her angry. And she's not sure who she's angry at, herself or the machine that stole months of her life and put her people in danger.

She doesn't feel whole, and she fears she never would be.

She knows this team will never be whole again though, there is no coming back from murder. That's what happened in the Framework, murder - the murder of Jeffrey Mace. And she had a hand in it. That's something she can't dispute and she's glad no one has come to her to dispute it.

It's the one thing she knows after all this mess. So she holds onto it even through all the rest of the confusion.

She might not be able to figure out all her feelings on how she should feel, but she knows she killed someone and needs to pay for that.

Does she pay by doing her duty? Will she even have a duty if they knew all the things she had done for HYDRA? What she did to Mace? Surely they all knew that now so why aren't they doing anything? Should she lock herself up somewhere now and save them the energy?

Her frustration returns again and this time she grabs a mug within reach and smashes it against the wall.

She watches as the pieces littered the ground, barely able to make out the words written on it:

**_"A Team That Trusts Is A Team That Triumphs"_ **

Funny, this isn't a team that trusts anymore and they haven't triumphed over anything either.

The team is as broken as the mug.

She is as broken as the mug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Being in the framework the longest gotta take its toll, but May is trying.
> 
> Up next, Mack!
> 
> Reviews/comments are much appreciated!


	4. Mack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mack thinks about Hope and Mace, and what could have been.

A cold fury washed over Mack. A kind of fury he’d rarely ever felt before.

People might mistake Mack’s silence for loss and grief, but it wasn’t the sadness that kept him quiet. No. It was fury and anger.

A machine had used his little girl against him. _His Hope_. They’d used her to control him at the cost of a member of the team.

Yes it had hurt him every single day of his life that he had lost her. But he had made peace with it, the pain simply just a part of him. He had moved on, built a life for himself with this team. It was a life without Hope in it but it didn’t make it worth any less. He would never trade this life just to have her in a world that was ruled by fear and oppression. His little girl deserved a better world and it wasn’t the world AIDA had made.

Letting her go wasn’t easy, of course. But he had let her go once before hadn’t he? That had been worse. At least this time, he got to have moments with her he didn’t get to before. At least this time, he was prepared, he could say goodbye, and he did. It hurts. This all hurts. The thoughts of a life that could have been, but it was a machine’s lies and Mack refuses to let AIDA win. Hope wouldn’t want that. Hope deserved better than that.

_Mace deserved better than that too._

Mack had been the one to carry Mace’s body as they all escaped. And it had reminded Mack of that day in the field when he, Mace, and Coulson were all stranded after the crash and Mace had been shot. Only he was alive then, and now, the man was boneless against him, making Mack all too cognizant of the reality his body had meant to all of them.

_Jeffrey Mace is dead._

The thought only made Mack’s fury ignite even more. How AIDA had tried to taint Mace’s good name in the framework. How she wanted to make him the villain. It was sick. It was unforgivable.

Mack knows all too well that Mace has his faults. The lies about his powers, and sometimes questionable decision making all factored into Mack not fully trusting the other man or his ability as a leader. But shady decisions and well intentioned lies hardly equated to deserving of death. There were far worse men in the world than Jeffrey Mace.

If nothing else, Mace had earned Mack’s respect when he had been willing to step down, when he had not fought Coulson resuming control of operations. You could learn a lot about a man by his actions when his mistakes are revealed, and Mace acted with grace and dignity. Those were traits that Mack could respect, even admire. Most people would have never faced humiliation and loss of power in that way, not when they had spent months as the top dog in charge.

Power had a way of corrupting even the best of people, but Mace hadn’t let it happen to him.

Then he was kidnapped - kidnapped trying to buy Daisy, Simmons, and Fitz time to escape with Shockley. And beaten nearly to death for the amusement of evil men. It wasn’t a fate that Mace deserved, much less thrown into the framework and dying without remembering even his real life.

Mack wonders if the man he had met in the framework was perhaps the real Mace all along, the man who didn’t need to hide behind facades or been hampered by feelings of insecurity. A man who could have been a great leader of SHIELD in the real world too if given just a little more time and opportunity.

Two things that the man would never have now because AIDA took it away. Because AIDA had them all so fooled, _had Mack so fooled_. She had used his daughter to keep Mack away from the team he had sworn to protect and in turn, make him break an oath of loyalty that had been sacred to him. She had used his daughter to make him a liar, a man who would stand by and do nothing instead of being there to fight for the people he loves.

He had always saw himself as a protector. After Hope, he had swore he would never let it happen again to anyone else, but now, it did happen. It happened to Mace, a man who deserved a life that was stolen from him.

How could anyone not feel anger and fury over something so unfair, something so needlessly cruel.

Mack wants to hit something, the urge is there. The anger, the rage - all building up inside. But something that strangely sounds like Hope’s voice was telling him if he let that fury take over, he’d be letting AIDA change him. He’d be letting her win.

And he wasn’t going to let that machine take anything more from him. He will not let the anger consume him.

Instead he would picture something better. Maybe Hope and Mace are in heaven, in a better place, where they both could be free.

Yes.

_That is a good image._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mack's voice was a little harder than the others to figure out, but I think this ended up like something Mack would think about.
> 
> Onto Jemma next!
> 
> Reviews/comments are much appreciated!


	5. Jemma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jemma Simmons can't stop crying and she didn't want to stop.

When they were inside the Framework, Jemma had kept her cool. The loss was always there but they were running for their lives, terrified of losing more, and there was no time to think of anything else. She had lives to save, lives that she was given a chance to save, that had been her duty.

But now in the silence of the Zephyr, all Jemma Simmons could do is cry.

She cried for her team and everything they had suffered.

She cried for Fitz, who may never be the same.

Most of all, she cried for Mace, the one who saved them all, who gave them the chance to save themselves, _the one Jemma couldn’t save_.

She had been right there in that building and there was nothing she could do. For all her genius, all her brilliance, she had failed to find a solution that would have saved Mace. Her failure _stings_.

She would never forget the look on his face when their eyes had locked for the last time. It was a look of resignation and acceptance of his fate, and _fear_.

She hadn't wanted to leave. They were all suppose to go home together. They were all suppose to make it. They had all deserved a happy ending. _Not this_. She had refused to move, to leave him behind. Even with a building crumbling around her, all Jemma could focus on was Mace. That horrible feeling of realization creeping up on her that he would die. Then the defiance that made her refuse to believe that she would let the death come to pass. Hadn't they lost enough already? Hadn't they just deserved for once to all make it home together? 

Why was the world so cruel?

Why do good people always have to die and the bad just seems to live on and on and on?

Then Coulson was pulling her away and all Jemma could do was cry and plead as she looked up at him. Pleading to him like a small child would, pleading with him to please tell her that this wasn't happening. That they were not leaving Mace behind to die. The sadness and terror that gripped her was unrelenting. Even as Coulson kept pulling her away, she had looked back, just hoping, just wishing, maybe, _just maybe_ Mace would be right behind them. That this was all just some horrible dream and not true.

But it was the ugly harsh truth.

Made only uglier by how they had found his body at the compound, left in a corner - discarded and tossed aside like it was garbage, _like it didn't matter_.

The thought made Jemma cry even harder as she huddled herself in a corner.

She couldn't even begin to describe how much it had hurt her seeing Mace's body in that moment. How she had barely maintained her control on her emotions to still hold it together until they got away on the Zephyr.

Just how many times were they suppose to fail in rescuing Mace?

She wants this to end already, she can't take it anymore, losing people like this, people who had never done anything to deserve it.

She doesn't care Mace put a hood over her head and practically shipped her off to parts unknown. She doesn't care that he wasn't always the easiest to work with. She doesn't care he lied about his powers. All of those things seem so insignificant in the face of this horrible loss.

_"Simmons..."_

Jemma looks up to find Daisy kneeling in front of her. 

In that moment, Jemma couldn't resist the urge to reach forward and hug Daisy. Hugging her tight and crying into her shoulder.

_"Shhhh...it's okay, Simmons, it's gonna be okay..."_

"No, no it's not. I can't do this, Daisy, I can't." The words flood out of her in quick succession. "He was a good man and she...she just left him there...like he didn't matter...like he meant nothing... _he wasn't nothing_...he was one of us..."

_"He is one of us, he always will be. We'll make sure no one forgets that. AIDA isn't going to take that away from him. I promise."_

Daisy's voice was firm, resolute, like she had no doubt. But Jemma, she was long beginning to have her doubts.

"I'm so tired Daisy, I don't want to lose people anymore. I can't keep going like this. I can't. It's too much. _I don't want this_."

Just how many people will have to die in front of her eyes before she realizes that maybe this isn't what she wants anymore. This job, it had taken from her so much. What if she had nothing left to give?

_"I know...I know..."_

Daisy's words were soft, and filled with pain.

She does know. Daisy perhaps knows like no one else.

"I miss him...I miss him already..."

_"Me too..."_

They sat there on the ground, holding onto each other. Both understanding the pain and the loss. This had been their mission, they were going to bring everyone home. They both will have to shoulder the failure.

They both couldn't save a man who had saved them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will I ever get over Jemma's cries as she's literally pulled away from Mace in that building? Nope, not likely ever.
> 
> And now onto Fitz, oh poor Fitz.
> 
> Reviews/comments are much appreciated!


	6. Fitz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They don't even know the worst of what Fitz did - his greatest shame.

He’s a murderer.

He never thought he would be, but here it is. It’s real. There’s no hiding from it. And there never will be.

The thought made Fitz throw up again as he leaned over the toilet.

When they had escaped onto the Zephyr, Fitz immediately locked himself up.

He couldn’t bear to look at the evidence of his villainy - the body of Director Mace carried in Mack’s arms.

Even now the image haunts him and he gags.

He couldn’t even begin to reconcile with the man he was in the Framework. It all felt like some terrible nightmare that he couldn’t wake up from. Except it wasn’t just a dream. _People actually died_. He has to face the consequences.

The woman, Agnes, she was innocent, he had killed an innocent woman. How does he come back from that? How does he accept that part of him that could be driven to murder in cold blood?

Does questioning the decision made afterwards somehow make it better?

And if it doesn’t, how could he even began to find any forgiveness for what he did to Mace?

At least with Agnes, he had questioned if the decision was necessary, that perhaps he hadn’t needed to do that to an innocent woman. But with Mace, he hadn’t even questioned, just like he didn’t even question striking Daisy and torturing her. His own people, _his own family_ , and he had felt no remorse inside the Framework for them than he would for a stranger.

What kind of man did that make him? What kind of a man does it make him now?

Fitz dry heaved against the toilet and started to breath heavily before he began to sob.

And the team, how could he even face them? They didn’t even know the worst of it, of what he had done.

They didn’t even know how he had gone with a team to crumbled building. How he had ordered them to dig through the rubble. He had wanted undeniable proof of the Patriot’s death. A collapsed building wasn’t enough. He wanted a body. _And he got one_.

Mace’s body - broken, twisted, bloodied, and eyes opened yet devoid of all life.

 _And Fitz had laughed_.

Glee and satisfaction running through him as he shook with laughter looking at his defeated enemy.

The echoing sound in his head of that laughter made Fitz collapse to the ground and curl into himself as he laid there. He wants to scream that it wasn’t him but it was him. He was the one laughing, he was the one pleased that a friend laid dead and broken. He wanted Mace dead and he was happy to see that he suffered.

It’s only proof isn’t it? Proof that Leopold James Fitz is a monster, a horrible monster with no remorse. A murderer. A butcher. A vile cruel man who couldn’t even let the dead rest in peace as he ordered the soldiers around him to drag Mace's body to some dock nearby and watched as they dumped him into the water.

He doesn’t deserve this team. He doesn’t deserve to be SHIELD. He doesn’t deserve Jemma.

Oh how she must hate him, be disgusted by him, and wants nothing to do with him.

He wouldn’t blame her. He wouldn’t blame any of them if they never want to be near him again.

This is all his fault. He started this. He helped Radcliffe. He made the Framework. People suffered, _people died_ , because he couldn’t leave it alone. Because he failed. Because he was selfish and careless.

And now, Fitz had killed the man who was only ever caught up in all this mess because he had risked his life to shield Fitz’s own.

Mace should have let him die. At least then, a good man would still be alive. Not lying dead on some cold slab, while his murderer still lives without a scratch on him.

How many more lives will have to be sacrificed before Fitz starts to realize that the problem has been him all along.

He’s the reason it’s all gone wrong.

He’s the one who shouldn’t exist.

He's ruined everything, just like his father always said he would.

He should have died and Mace should have lived.

The world needs a Patriot more than they need a murderer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going to stay with Fitz for quite a while. Poor thing.
> 
> Talbot is the next on the docket!
> 
> Reviews/comments are always appreciated!


	7. Talbot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With SHIELD still reeling from everything, Talbot has to become the shield that they can't be right now.

The whole mess couldn’t be more of a disaster if it tried.

Not only was SHIELD attacked and infiltrated again. But now another Director is dead?

It was already an absolute PR nightmare with everyone from the President to your average citizen demanding answers as to why SHIELD literally went up in flames.

They had just barely got SHIELD up and running in the public eye. It had finally regained some respect in the public sphere thanks to the popularity of Patriot and Quake.

But this?

He couldn’t even begin to imagine the difficulty unraveling this mess would even take. If he began to think about it, he’d just want to put his head through a wall, or resign. Neither of which Talbot figured would do anyone any good.

He was going to rip Coulson’s team a new one though. They’ve finally crossed the line this time. It was getting ridiculous the amount of trouble they attract on a daily basis. How was anyone suppose to feel safe with SHIELD if this kept happening?

But as Glenn Talbot watched the team disembark from their SHIELD plane, the anger and frustration that had been building ever since he got the news quickly faded upon seeing their faces.

He’s seen Coulson’s team through their fair share of troubles, but they were always resilient, unusually calm in a crisis even. It was annoying to no end but Talbot had always secretly admired their tenacity for bouncing back from insurmountable odds.

_But the looks on their faces this time..._

Let's just say it was something Talbot never wanted to see again.

A situation that could unsettle this team was something that Talbot could only be sure was nothing good.

He watches as they all more or less stumble off the plane in various stages of shock. Coulson wouldn't even meet his eyes, which is more than unsettling, given the man never was lacking for a snarky one liner often directed at Talbot's direction.

They all just look _lost_. There is none of that defiant fire that Talbot had always come to associate with this team.

And then, just like that, it felt like the room had dropped a few more degrees when two agents disembark with a stretcher between them.

Talbot looks to his men and they move into action, taking the stretcher from the SHIELD agents and moving it to the room they had set up.

Coulson's team watch in silence as the stretcher bearing Jeffrey Mace's body disappears from sight and it unnerves Talbot. They had never been this quiet, this adrift.

The only one who seems daring to meet his gaze is Daisy Johnson, though Talbot supposes he shouldn't be surprised since Johnson was the one who had been speaking with him when he finally got into contact with them. She seemed the most put together at the moment. He would need to talk to her again. But first things first.

"Rooms have been set up here for all of you, my men will escort you."

He keeps the surprise off his face when they wordlessly comply. He briefly wonders if he's woken up to some alternate reality, for they had never obeyed any order of his without at least hours worth of defiance, complaint, and disagreement, usually very vehemently and loudly.

Now though, it was only him and Johnson left, and he didn't waste any time.

"I've been trying to fend off calls for 6 hours, _six hours_ , trying to not let this news get out. How the hell do I explain Mace's death to the President, much less explain it to a media that's been trying to bite my head off!"

All the frustrations roll out at once. This was an unmitigated disaster for sure. The death of a beloved public hero and head of a public organization couldn't very well be swept under the rugs. But how the hell do you even begin to explain that he died in a digital world created by a robot and an errant scientist with dark magic? The whole thing sounds even ridiculous to himself.

 _"Somehow I think the President wouldn't be that shocked by the truth..."_  

Well, Johnson wasn't wrong about that. Matthew Ellis at least had the experience and fortitude to handle news like this. Talbot knows Ellis will play along with whatever that's needed, it's happened before after all. But that still leaves the mess of the media and the public.

"And the public? What tale are we to spin this time to explain how an Inhuman with super strength just happen to drop dead?"

_"The truth...or at least...a version of the truth..."_

Giving Johnson a look, Talbot asked, "And what truth is that?"

Johnson pauses for a moment, taking in a deep breath before she continues, her tone serious and her gaze unyielding, _"That Mace died trying to protect his agents, that he sacrificed himself so we could escape the Watchdogs. That the Watchdogs took him, tortured him, and killed him when he didn't give in."_

"You want to use his death to take down the Humans First movement?" Talbot was surprised that she would suggest that. The team had a tendency to be sentimental, and this seemed almost callous coming from them.

 _"Yes."_ The gaze in her eyes briefly softens, _"Because that's what he would have wanted. He would have wanted his death to make a difference, for us, for the Inhumans who have been made targets."_

"So the Patriot becomes a martyr for the cause." Talbot was impressed, and he had to admit, this could very well be the thing they needed to settle into some kind of peace with all this Human vs Inhuman debate.

_"He died a hero, fighting for innocent lives, he deserves to be remembered as that."_

Talbot sensed a defiant tone in her, as if challenging him to deny it, to deny that Mace is a hero. Not that he would. But from what he had remembered, Mace and Coulson's team hadn't necessarily gotten along and he didn't think the reveal of him using the serum would have endeared Mace to Daisy Johnson of all people. Yet here it is, Mace seemed to have united the team in their deference and attachment to him, at least he did in death.

"We'll have to doctor some reports, the autopsy..." Talbot tries to think of all the angles they'd have to check to make sure that the public version of Mace's death would be air-tight, that no one could poke holes in their story. "And someone has to inform his family before we go public about it..." He looks at Johnson whose eyes widen.

_"Me?"_

"Who else?" Talbot explained, "I'll deliver the news to the President, but his family deserves at least someone who knew him, someone that's on his team. Given the state of the rest of your people, I'd say you're the best shot. And believe it or not, Patriot and Quake, that's quite a pair in the public's eye. Either way, better the news come from Mace's own people than me."

Talbot doesn't mention the fact that giving death notices to families has always been a difficult thing to him. He still remembers where his father was, where his mother was, the day they came to tell his family that his brother Edward had been killed. He had been a boy, but that memory has never faded. A wound like that never heals and he could never bring himself to do it to another family, especially Mace's family. They're civilians, their loved ones are suppose to come home.

Johnson drops her gaze, in deep thought for a moment before nodding, _"I'll do it."_

She stands there squaring her shoulders, almost like a soldier accepting her duty. And for a moment Talbot is reminded that SHIELD agents are soldiers after all, their battlefield just happens to be different than his own.

"Get some rest, it's gonna be some long days ahead..." Talbot finds himself dropping the gruffness in his voice for a softer one, the one he uses with his son when the boy would be upset.

Johnson looks up and gives him a sad smile before walking away.

Talbot watches her go and wonders maybe Coulson and Mace were both right.

They had all spent so long trying to find a worthy successor to lead SHIELD into the light.

And now with Mace dead, that search would no doubt begin again.

But maybe, _just maybe..._

The worthy successor has been in front of their eyes all along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this fic is getting pretty canon-divergent at this point what with everything that's happened in the last two episodes. But the fic is planned out already so I will stick with what I had in mind because there needs to be a more happy version of events than what the show just did. And nope, Mace deserves better than what AIDA and Ivanov did to him.
> 
> Talbot helps the team out this time instead of being on opposite sides before.
> 
> And up next is Elena!
> 
> And as usual reviews/comments are always appreciated!!


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